Subsoiling. 155 
loosens the subsoil and allows it to retain its mois- 
ture better in times of drought. An attempt should 
be made to bring the land in the various parts of 
the orchard into conditions as uniform as possible, 
so that the same tillage and treatment may be ap- 
plied to the entire area. All hard and “sour” spots 
should receive particular care in drainage and subju- 
gation, or they should be left outside the plantation. 
Lands which have hard and impervious subsoils 
should be plowed very deep before trees are put 
upon them; and in some eases, as for dwarf pears, 
it may pay well to use the subsoil plow. It should 
be borne in mind, however, that the subsoil plow is 
not always a fundamental corrective of hard subsoils, 
for it does not remove the cause. The subsoil may 
gradually settle back into its old condition, and land 
cannot be completely subsoiled after it is planted to 
trees. In the. case of strawberries, raspberries, and 
other short-rotation fruits, the subsoil plow may be 
used at frequent intervals; but in lands which are to 
be planted to orchards, the tile drain is a more per- 
fect ameliorator of the subsoil than the subsoil plow 
is. Yet even the one subsoiling may serve a use- 
ful purpose in sending the roots downwards at the 
start, and this advantage will be the greater when 
the superfluous water removes itself rapidly from the 
hard-pan. 
The soil in which orchards are set should always 
be in a thorough state of cultivation at the time the 
trees are planted; that is, whether in sod or in hoed 
crops, the land should be in good tilth or physical 
